Friday, December 19, 2008

For the past couple of weeks, I've been leading two of my reading groups in a couple of crafts. Shhhhhh...don't tell anyone. I was supposed to be doing reading with them.

Okay, so they had to listen and follow directions. We used the math terms triangle and parallel. We talked about the difference between parallel and perpendicular lines, in addition to the differences between triangles and quadrilaterals. We discussed spheres too

As long as we hit things on the standards, I think I may be "covered" but who knows for sure in this day and age?

Anyway, I am NOT a crafty person in the least. When I told my mom that I was doing this with the children, she laughed. She knows that I'm not crafty. However, these were more time consuming than anything else, so they really didn't turn out too bad.

I wish I had taken pictures of each step of the way, but I forgot to take my camera to school. HOWEVER, I remembered to take it on the day that they were able to take their snowflakes home, and then their snowman ornaments.

I felt it was safe to put this picture up and told the little girl that she needed to put the snowflake in front of her face.

Once they were all put together, I spray painted glitter on them. I believe that this child chose the pearl colored glitter. I also had silver and gold for them to choose from.

To get these home in one piece, I put them in a gallon size ziploc bag, then blew air into them so that they were like a pillow. Then I told them all how to carry their backpacks on the bus so that they wouldn't get smashed. The next day they ALL said that their snowflakes got home safely!

Now...not only did we make snowflakes, but we also made snowman ornaments.

They chose a blue round ornament (different shades of blue and different finishes). I painted their hand and then placed the ornament in their palm. They put their fingers up around the ornament and when they let go, it looked like there were snowmen on a bed of snow. The next day, after they dried, the children used Sharpie markers to decorate the snowmen. One little girl had been absent the day before, so I just painted some snowmen on one and gave it to her to use.

They turned out pretty well. The only thing we didn't have time to do was put little dots of white paint on to represent the falling snow. I wrapped these up in tissues and newspaper, then put them in a smaller plastic bag, hoping they would get home safely. Again, the boys and girls all said that they got them home without the ornament breaking. Whew!

So, all in all, I'm rather proud of myself for leading them through these two things, if I do say so myself!

My classes made the snowmen ornaments for many years. I also made the big snowflakes one year. I lost/misplaced the directions and would love to make some for our dining hall next year. I will have to hunt for the directions again!